


One Spark (I've Got Your Electricity)

by ImNeitherNor



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy tries to make his new normal, Kids plotting in general, M/M, Steve isn't as stupid as everyone thinks, Winter after S3, and...S N O W, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 08:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22338970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImNeitherNor/pseuds/ImNeitherNor
Summary: When his BMW mysteriously gives up, Steve is already moved out of his parents' house. His car is now stuck in his apartment parking lot, and the only person willing to come out in the snow and slush is the one person who has avoided everyone since July.
Relationships: Steve Harrington/Billy Hargrove
Comments: 22
Kudos: 324
Collections: harringrove for Australia





	One Spark (I've Got Your Electricity)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ohmybgosh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmybgosh/gifts).

> BABY, I HOPE YOU LIKE IT.
> 
> This was supposed to be 1.5k, but... well, I have a bad track record with limits.

One Spark (I’ve Got Your Electricity)

“Because it’s _ cheaper_!” Max insists as she follows Billy through the narrow hallway of their house, “and, like, it’s not like you’re _ doing anything_.” She plants her hands on her hips as Billy turns to stare her down. He isn’t nearly as intimidating after July. He doesn’t spend all his time lifting weights or smoking or drinking. More and more, Billy ends up carting her and her friends around in Susan’s car.

“And it’s not anything else?” Billy asks, and Max thinks about the way she’s watched Billy and Steve orbit each other, a constant dance that she’s been waiting to see the climax of, like those awful romcom movies with cliche endings. Or like a train wreck that she just can't look away from. Either way, it's most likely going to be a mess. She knows Billy likes Steve and Eleven is _ terrible _ at keeping secrets, so it isn’t like Steve is completely innocent when it comes to boys.

Steve’s "issues" with his BMW are just the catalyst she needed to get them together.

“Nope,” Max raises an eyebrow as she denies any other sort of intention that is definitely happening. Joke's on Billy. She’s gotten good at manipulation and trickery watching him and Neil. “You know he’ll just break more shit if he tries to fix it, Billy, _ and _ he moved out so he’s like. _ Broke _ . If you don’t fix his car, it’ll be just you driving us around.” She shrugs and raises her hands in a defeated gesture, “I guess you’ll just have to be our permanent _ chauffeur_.”

Billy grunts and scrubs his face. She knows she has a _ yes _ when he exhales and looks up at the ceiling.

“Or a _ butler_\--”

“Okay! Fuck. Fine, _whatever_. I’ll get my shit. You’re lucky he’s cute,” Billy grumbles the last part below his breath as he ducks into his room. It’s been a weird, turbulent relationship with him since he came home from the hospital, but Neil not being around (a ‘victim’ of the fire and collapse of the mall) and Susan’s willingness to take Billy in has made him less volatile.

With Neil gone, it’s like the entire house can breathe, Billy included. 

She thinks the best part of it all is debating while watching tv about who has the nicest ass or who is the cutest in the cast. He doesn’t say anything around Susan, of course, but they have a whole ranking system now and they can throw numbers out and cackle without saying anything else.

It’s actually nice. The only thing missing is Steve at Billy’s hip. It took Eleven finessing the manual to Steve's BMW and a couple minutes of troubleshooting to figure out how to lure Billy into fixing a fake problem. Ever since July, Billy's been restless with the need to do things. In spite of doctor's orders, he managed to get a job at the local shop. It makes it an easy trap because Steve is absolutely _ worthless _ with machines. The last thing Steve will figure out is that his sort-of-kids set him up with Max's sort-of-brother (which is closer than step).

It’s a perfect plan, as far as Max is concerned.

~*~

When Billy parks next to the BMW, the sky opens up and snow begins to drift down in thick blankets. He climbs out, his boots crunching on old, grey, slush accumulation. It’s cold and sort of gross, in his opinion. He doesn’t like the cold. Granted, he never has. Being forced to lie in ice baths to make that _ thing _ more comfortable didn’t help. Billy swallows the bitter taste on his tongue that it brings back and pops the trunk.

“Here to save me?” 

The question makes Billy pop up from his crouched position over the open trunk. He hits his head on the lid and grunts, immediately pressing his palm to his scalp where it stings. The look of shock and immediate regret on Steve’s face is priceless enough that Billy isn't annoyed by the ache starting at the back of his skull.

“Shit, _ shit. _ I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Do you need ice? I have ice. I can get--”

“_Harrington_,” Billy snorts and closes the trunk lid, “it’s fine. Relax. Just get your hood open for me. I can get your car running in no time.”

Steve’s cheeks are pink. Billy wonders if it’s from the cold or from being flustered. Probably both. He treks around to the front of the BMW’s hood and pulls it up after Steve triggers the latch. There’s a pinch of daylight left, especially with the onslaught of snow. It should give him just enough time to figure out what's going on with the engine.

“Crank it for me,” Billy settles a hand on the cold metal of Steve’s fender and leans over the engine, “I wanna see it try to work, okay?”

After a moment, there’s the click of the engine, the attempted start up, and the failure.

“One more time,” Billy watches the engine rattle and almost chokes on a laugh.

Max, that little fucking _ shit_.

“I think I know what’s going on. It’ll take me _ maybe _ ten minutes to fix,” when Billy leans to the side, he catches Steve’s big eyes and offers a tiny grin. “You gonna stay out here and watch me work, pretty boy?”

“It’s cold enough that I think my balls are literally crawling inside of my body,” Steve climbs out of the car and Billy knows he’s walking over because of the crunch of snow beneath his shoes. “I can make us something hot to drink for when you’re done?”

“Sounds peachy,” Billy still can’t believe Max. She had to have help with this and she probably stole his goddamn tools to do it, too. He stays bent over the side of Steve’s car, acutely aware of the sound of Steve’s footsteps as he walks away. Only when the door shuts to his apartment does Billy pull out a wrench and fiddle with the cables leading to the battery.

They flop off like a fish out of water, loosened to the point of barely producing enough power or shock to start the engine.

“Doubt she did this alone,” Billy muses as he secures the terminals back onto the battery. It should probably infuriate him that Max is trying to play matchmaker, and maybe it would have before July. Now? He isn’t bothered by it, but he’s pretty sure she’s barking up the wrong tree with Steve Harrington. He shakes his head and drops down into the driver’s seat.

The engine starts up as soon as he turns the key over, strong and vibrant like it should be. He lets it run for only a minute or two before shutting it down and climbing out. He locks the BMW, closes the hood, and makes his way to Steve’s apartment door. Honestly? Billy expects Steve to hand him a twenty and make him leave. He isn't hoping for anything beyond that. Even expecting any sort of money is idiotic. 

Since July, Billy has done just about everything he can to be invisible, so it aches somewhere deep in his chest when Steve swings the door open and grins, his eyes bright. He feels seen and--

“I made hot cocoa,” Steve sounds proud of himself, “not the shitty kind, either. The chocolate and milk and baking cocoa and… uh, well. It’s _ good_, I guess, is what I’m saying.”

“I bet,” Billy tips his head to the side, “gonna make me drink it outside, then?” He can’t decide if Steve is nervous or not. He doesn’t remember him being this rambly, but then again, he only ever taunted and teased him. Well, _ bullied_, technically.

“No, why? Oh. Right, right,” Steve gestures for Billy to follow him inside. “Did you manage to fix it? What was wrong with it?” 

It’s an actual goddamn effort not to look at Steve’s ass as Billy follows him into the tiny kitchen. The apartment feels homey. Lived in. He can see the bedroom door, open in the hall. It’s minuscule compared to the Harrington mansion, but Steve seems more comfortable and at ease with it all. Billy only knows that because of Max--picking her up, waiting for her game to be over, smoking out by the pool while Steve babbled about the pool and every piece of horror that comes with the Upside Down.

“Billy?” Steve steps in front of him. It’s startling enough that Billy almost jumps. “Hey? Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Yes, why?” Billy furrows his brows as Steve looks over him, like he’s looking for something out of place. _ The whole thing_, Billy thinks.

“I was talking. You kinda went space cadet on me,” Steve nods his head toward a pot that’s steaming. Billy realizes that it smells like chocolate and peppermint. He blames Steve’s ass, mostly, but he also knows that he was thinking about Steve’s old house and the pool and things that go bump at night in Hawkins.

“If space doesn’t have those things in it, I’ll go full space cadet,” Billy grins to cover up the honesty of his statement. Steve catches it, anyway, because Steve isn’t so great with cars, but he’s scarily good with people. “And back to your question? Your battery terminals were loose,” Billy accepts the mug of hot cocoa and breathes the steam in. “Any shitbirds around recently?”

Steve is sipping at his own cocoa and obviously trying to figure out terminals and battery. He props his hip against the counter and it’s almost fucking breathtaking. It shouldn’t be. Steve is in sweats slung low on his hips and an old Hawkins High t-shirt. His hair is a mess. He looks like he just got out of bed, for fuck’s sake. But.

_ But_.

“Now that you mention it,” Steve licks chocolate from his lips and looks toward the door, “Jane and Max came over. They said they left something in my car?”

“Huh,” Billy smirks behind the rim of his mug. He should be pissed off. He should be absolutely livid with Max. He isn’t. “They didn’t. They fucked with your battery.”

“_What_?” Steve sputters and it makes Billy laugh, even if it’s short and quiet.

“Yeah, fucked with your cables. All I had to do was tighten the terminals and bam, it’s good to go.”

“But why would they do that?” Steve sets his mug down and pinches the bridge of his nose, “what’s the point of fucking with me? _ Ugh_.”

“Well,” Billy has faced a monster from another dimension. He’s led people to their deaths unwillingly. He basically murdered his own father. He’s confronted a teenager in his own head. He watched her look at Neil like he was a cockroach. He felt the fucking _ same_. At the end of the day, Billy’s done just about everything he thinks someone could do under the list of _ shitty_. He’d like, for once, to add something to his pathetic _ good _ list. “They think you’re into guys.”

And it’s out there. It’s in the air. It settles between them and leaves Billy feeling listless and stupid. What the _ fuck _ was he thinking?

“Is that a problem?” Steve’s question throws Billy so far off that he almost drops his mug of cocoa.

“Uh,” Billy looks up and meets Steve’s eyes, “uhm. No? No. I didn’t. I mean. I didn’t think you _ were _, is the thing? And I’m pretty sure that Max set this up so that we--so that I--”

“I know,” Steve smiles and Billy can’t fucking _ breathe_.

“You--what?” Billy blinks once. Twice. He can’t put two thoughts together. What the _ fuck_? How many times was he going to think what the fuck? 

“I think they’ve been trying for awhile,” Steve admits, “they’re not as sneaky as they think. And Jane is a _ snoop_.” He mutters the last part.

“No fucking kidding,” Billy grunts and leans against the counter, “so. What do we do with them?”

“Them?” Steve sets his mug down. Billy’s heart lodges itself into his throat as Steve steps closer. Stupid jackass has _ longer legs _ and all he has to do is take two goddamn steps and he’s in Billy’s space. The only thing separating them is how Billy’s holding his cocoa against his chest. “What about us?”

There’s something in Steve’s eyes that Billy can’t place, but it leaves him breathless.

“Uh,” Billy swallows. There’s an audible click from it. “Us?”

“Do you like me?” Steve is searching his face. Billy can see it. “Was all that shit in high school pigtail pulling? Flirting? Or did you mean it all?”

Oh, shit. _ Oh shit_.

“I didn’t mean it,” Billy manages as his grip tightens on the mug, “I mean--I meant the thing about plenty of fish in the sea. Y’know. Because…”

“Pretty sure _ you’re _ not a fish, Hargrove,” Steve reaches down and steals his mug. It gets put next to Steve’s, and then Steve is curling a finger into his belt loop and pulling him forward. “But are you an option?”

Neil is gone. Any sort of ramifications for being with a boy aren’t there anymore. At least, not from his old man. Society, sure, but if they keep to themselves?

“Yes,” Billy never imagined he’d say that, but here he is. He says _ yes _ and Steve is leaning down.

Steve tastes like chocolate. He tastes like mint, like he had brushed his teeth while Billy had worked on the car. Like he’d known this could have happened. Billy settles his hands on Steve’s sides and opens up as soon as Steve licks over his lips. He’s almost too stunned to actually return the kiss, but something clicks and he sucks on Steve’s tongue, licks just as eagerly into his mouth. 

After they break apart, Billy fights to catch his breath, his eyes half-lidded and feeling so perfectly overwhelmed.

“We should string them along,” Steve grins. It makes Billy laugh. Of course, Steve would want to see the shitbirds squirm. “Pretend it went all wrong.”

“Max calls _ me _ an asshole,” Billy shakes his head and nudges Steve back, “let me go get my shit outta the car, yeah? Then we can hang out and talk about… this.” He pinks and goes even warmer as Steve brushes his lips over Billy’s jaw, his cheek. “Get off of me, _ Christ_,” he pushes again and huffs, hiding his own grin as he ducks by Steve to swing the apartment door open.

“Oh,” Billy blinks and stares at the blanket of snow. “Well, then.” In that small amount of time, it had managed _ maybe _ five inches of snow on the ground. Fucking Indiana.

“Guess you’re not going anywhere,” Steve says from behind, and Billy, for once, isn’t sure that he minds being trapped. “And you know what’s _ so _ bad for you, Hargrove?”

Billy looks over his shoulder and he doubts that anything Steve could say would actually be bad, so he snorts and rolls his eyes. “What could possibly be so bad, _ Harrington_?”

“This isn’t my parents’ place,” Steve’s arm creeps around Billy’s waist, a gentle hold, more like a question than a grab. Billy hesitates and eases back as he turns his attention back to the snow. 

“So?”

“Only one bed,” Steve’s voice is the fucking equivalent of Billy’s tongue-over-his-lower-lip move.

“You’re right,” Billy reaches out, grips the door, and pushes it shut, “but that’s not a problem at all, is it?”

~*~

"I like that you're broken  
Broken like me  
Maybe that makes me a fool  
I like that you're lonely  
Lonely like me  
I could be lonely with you

I met you late night, at a party  
Some trust fund baby's Brooklyn loft  
By the bathroom, you said let's talk  
But my confidence is wearing off

These aren't my people  
These aren't my friends  
She grabbed my face and that's when she said

I like that you're broken  
Broken like me  
Maybe that makes me a fool  
I like that you're lonely  
Lonely like me  
I could be lonely with you."

-Broken by Lovelytheband


End file.
